Armies on Art: Joni Mitchell's "Blue" & Hideaki Anno's "Shin Kamen Rider"
First things first, do these two things have anything in common with each other? Not that I can tell, no. But they're both awesome and I've been really fucking annoying to everyone I know about them for the last few weeks. I also just wanted to draw Joni Mitchell and Kamen Rider together. Yeah, just a little glimpse into my crazy messed up mind. Anyway, let's start with my girl Joni.
Joni Mitchell has always been a huge blind spot for me. I'd heard "Big Yellow Taxi" in passing a million times, as has everyone else in the world, and that song has never done anything for me, so I kinda just ignored her. Recently, I've been making more of an effort to remedy some of these blind spots, and Blue seemed as good a starting point as any, so I threw it on in the morning while doing some housework, and I was immediately and thoroughly blown away. Blue is one of those albums you listen to and then realize "ohhhh so every other musician I like has been ripping this off the whole time."
Since listening to Blue in its entirety roughly twelve times in the first week, I've spent the last few weeks waking up every morning with a different one of its songs stuck in my head every day. "Carey" and "A Case of You" are probably the most common repeat offenders, but they've all had their place in my head, driving me crazy. Each and every track on this album is completely distinct from everything around it, yet they all work together so cohesively. There are plenty of albums where I like every song, but exceptionally few where each and every song has taken up an abnormally large space in my brain. Guided by Voice's Alien Lanes and Ween's Chocolate and Cheese are the only other ones that immediately come to mind (sorry Aja, "I Got the News" isn't quite up to par).
I wouldn't consider myself particularly capable of discussing the technical aspects of music production in any way that's interesting, but I will certainly note that every individual piece of Blue's largely sparse instrumentation sounds beautiful and distinct. Like, when the drums come in towards the end of "All I want"? Yeah. That's the good stuff. Obviously, Ms. Mitchell's singing is beyond beautiful. "River" is a standout example of her insane range, both dynamically and emotionally. That being said, none of that would matter much if the songs weren't any good. Fortunately, every single song on this album is probably one of the best songs ever written. And sure, there may be a million "best songs ever written," but this album has ten of them. If you haven't listened to this album yet, take a few minutes to treat yourself.
Shin Kamen Rider is an uber-stylish remake of the 1971 Japanese TV show called, you guessed it, Kamen Rider. The original Kamen Rider series is genre-defining, full of heart and character, and serves as the foundation of a franchise that has been going steady for 55 years off, barring a few years off in the '80s and '90s. It is also an incredibly low budget show that stretches on for 99 episodes with little to no semblance of a plot. It largely sucks. I have seen every episode and love it dearly. Now, if you're not a psycho like me, and you haven't sat through roughly fifty hours of kinda-shitty old TV, will you like this movie? Probably, yeah. While this movie features a ton of references to the source material, I think it does a good enough job of introducing new viewers to the basics.
Shin Kamen Rider is presented as a movie, but for all intents and purposes, it's really a five-episode TV series. What you may call "small pacing issues" I would call "a loving tribute to the episodic nature of the original show." These episodes more or less reinterpret the entirety of the original series. The plot of this movie does a fine enough job of moving the story along, but much like just about every other piece of tokusatsu media, the real appeal here is the stunning visual direction, strong character work, and crazy inexplicable bullshit. So that's what I'll be talking about from here on.
Full transparency here: I'm an American guy that was born in the 90s and likes to go on the computer. What this means is that I automatically love Hideaki Anno. Watching Shin Kamen Rider makes it a little more clear to me why I love his art so much: he likes all the same stuff I do! Because most of my friends are generally well-adjusted people, they have neither the time nor willingness to watch a 1971 foreign kids' show, and it's hard to discuss with people. While I can't literally discuss it with Anno, this entire movie feels like him saying "yeah man this shit is sick," and he's right! Every suit, character, and fight scene in this movie is batshit crazy, meticulously detailed, and presented in complete and total sincerity. They're superheroes, why would they make sense?
Much like Star Wars, Kamen Rider is a franchise designed to sell toys. That's not to say that no love or care is put into these stories. Rather, it means an inordinate amount of budget, time, and talent goes into making sure the guys on screen look cool and that you'll want to put a little figure of them on your shelf once the movie is over. The key to this? Incredible character design. Kamen Rider is a superhero, so he obviously needs a kickass costume. The costume from the original series, while perhaps shoddily put together due to budget constraints, is already a pretty perfect design, and this movie does little to change that aside from using more premium materials and throwing a (really sick) trenchcoat on top. The film's villains also have insanely creative and fun designs, with this film's rendition of Spider Man (not that one) being my favorite of the bunch. It's so impressive to me that they were able to set a grittier, more realistic tone for this movie and also fit in a spider-themed freak with six arms that's more interesting than most characters you'd see in a 2D medium.
The cinematography of this film is so beautiful and so graphic. The original TV series isn't a bad looking show, per se, but is largely outclassed by its many successor series and its sister tokusatsu series, Ultraman. Ultraman, along with its successors Ultraseven and Return of Ultraman, are some of the most visually impressive TV shows I've ever seen, but we'll talk about that another time. What matters here is that Shin Kamen Rider features visuals on par with the absolute best of the Shōwa-era tokusatsu shows. I've included a few examples below. While this is a movie that is primarily about a guy in a mask beating the dogshit out of a bunch of animal-themed freaks, simple conversation scenes between characters are often framed with just as much care and attention to detail as the bombastic fights.
Hard to describe how vibrant the red of the stage looks on a nice screen. Feels almost like seeing a Rothko in person
I could go on about Blue and Shin Kamen Rider at length, but the most important thing I can say here is that I love them a lot, and I think you should check them out. See ya next time kids!
Comments